As the wars overseas wind down, tens of thousands of troops are saying goodbye to the military life they knew and connecting with family, employers, teachers and strangers who don’t understand their experience.
Stars and Stripes looks at how veterans are bridging the gap between their old military lives and their new civilian reality.

THE GREAT DIVIDE

What does America need to know about its veterans? What’s the biggest divide between those who have served and those who haven’t? We asked readers to weigh in on those questions, and here’s how you responded.

The Great Divide

The staff behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Personal Branding Resume Engine say their goal isn’t just to help build better resumes for veterans, but to also help them think more like a civilian job applicant when discussing their military skills.

For the last three months, Jim Buzzell's self-imposed confinement has kept him in his home. He says even short trips to the post office down the street are too overwhelming. He thinks his traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder are getting worse. But surrounded by complete strangers in the remote hills of West Texas, that Jim Buzzell disappears.

Barack Obama’s first 100 days included three bold mandates for Eric Shinseki: end the benefits backlog, end veterans homelessness, and enable seamless sharing of medical records between the defense and veterans affairs departments.
Today, 1,600 days into Obama’s presidency, none of those promises has been fulfilled.